Re: not good proposal: "C-z <letter>" reserved for users

[Robert Thorpe <rt@robertthorpeconsulting.com>]

Gregory Heytings <gregory@heytings.org> writes:

>>
>> From shell point of view C-z shall suspend the job. I do not even 
>> consider C-z being Emacs-based but now I assume it is decision of Emacs 
>> to keep C-z as how it should be in the shell. When opening a new VPS to 
>> process various jobs one would then need to first configure Emacs to 
>> have job control working. That is not useful. It would break many habits 
>> and expected behavior.
>>
>
> The proposal in this thread has little to do with the proposal in the 
> "PROPOSAL: Repurpose one key..." thread.  In that proposal it is 
> explicitly stated that C-z C-z would be bound to "suspend-frame".  IOW, 
> all you'd have to do is to press three keys instead of two to suspend. 
> Repeating a key until it produces the desired effect is something terminal 
> users are used to do, for example, repeating C-c until the program aborts.

Here are my opinions on these things.

* Moratorium on New Emacs Keybindings.

At present there's lot of work going on outside of core Emacs.  I think
it makes sense for core Emacs not to use too many keybindings.  I can
see the sense the argument Drew Adams makes.

If a *general* moratorium isn't possible, then how about a more specific
one?  How about applying it only to certain keymaps or prefix keys.


* A Prefix-Key for Global Third-Party Packages.

I think this is a good idea too.  Picking the right key is a problem.

There is another issue....  I'm not sure that third-party packages will
use the feature.  I'm also on the Reddit Emacs group.  Several of the
people there use and develop third-party packages.  It seems to me that
they often do that because they don't want to contribute to core.  Some
don't like the core Emacs development team and don't  agree with their
direction for Emacs.  So, would they use such a prefix key if it were
offered?  Perhaps not.

It woud be a feature for those 3rd-party package authors who want to
co-operate with the core Emacs devs.  I don't know how many of those
there are, but I doubt it's all of them.

** Which Key to Use?

Like Jean Louis, I think that the suggestion of changing C-z is awful.
I use it all the time.  Like Jean said it's expected in Unix like
environments.

Of the keys suggested I think the best is "M-o" since it's current
default binding isn't very useful.


* Pop-Up Message Asking the User on Adding Keybindings.

I think this is a fairly good idea.  The question is whether package
authors will use it, like the prefix-key idea.

Also the code would have to be written.


BR,
Robert Thorpe